Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The other day, I got a text message asking me if I quite possibly was Prince's illegitimate love child. Having a lack of talent in the singing direction, it's probably not likely...as much as I'd much rather be arting than working so inheriting a large fortune would work well for that. I did get my purple on though with this pocket letter. Lisa over at Life of a BZscrapper and I decided we wanted to make a purple card.

As it was inspired of course by Prince, I decided my main focal card should say Rock Star. The rest got a crazy water color treatment because my friend Lisa uses watercolors ALL THE TIME and I always think, oh...I should do that. So I did.

Randomly the Corning ReStore was selling packs of these white cards. They were almost the perfect size for a pocket letter so water coloring a whole bunch was pretty easy. I did get in trouble from the watercolor police (Lexi) for mixing colors so my water coloring days might be over....Or I just have to buy my own set...

I do think watercolor looks dandy with a purple background and gold accents...of course glitter too. I went all super blingy. I think Prince would have liked it.

Vellum accents works well for water color too since you can see through it...most awesome fun.

Monday, May 30, 2016

I'm always impressed by how it's completely different on the other side of the world or even on the other side of the US. I mean, I know these things....but then you have peeps talking about how they don't have daffodils, other peeps talking about their cactus, and then me, totally walking by this lovely purple iris...So I stopped and took a photo to share with you. I have others in progress, but at the moment this is the most showy lovely one of all.

Iris are a pretty forgiving plant. I once got four or five shopping bags full or iris toobers that someone was throwing away in late October and threw them in the ground. I had flowers the next spring. I would imagine though they don't grow where cacus grow, hence the photo!

Currently at the moment it's threatning to rain and I'm getting weather alerts about flash floods so I'm hoping we get some rain to water the plants but not so much that all the new grass seed and hay we spread after a recent project washes away. We have a long weekend here in the States with what always seems to be the official start of summer; Memorial Day weekend.

Oh look, it's THE MAN checking on me. We just finished chipping all the gardens. As you can see, the plants are already quite tall so it was a good thing we got it done. Will have some peonies soon!

Oh and on the subject of purple, check back tomorrow. There will be more purple on my blog!

Thursday, May 26, 2016

I took a break from the beach pages to tidy up my office. This means that I scrapbooked a few things I had sitting around waiting for a page. See how this works? Tidying means scrapbooking...in some cases! (This quite possibly might be the reason that cleaning the office takes so long, but it will be our secret.) I had saved the invite, the tag that came with their gift, and the envelope to use on a layout with this photo in a little pile and now that pile is gone, so its a win win!

Lexi thinks at some point she'll look back and see how cheap the postage stamp was and be amazed....I told her that I hoped Happy mail still existed by that point!

Tucked in behind this layout in the scrapbook will be Volunteer Service Award letter that Lexi got from the White House. See, last summer Lexi picked up hours right and left that other kids couldn't fill instead of just working the one week they gave her. This year she will be down there every Thursday as she's on their Teen Advisory board. Luke will be going with her to help out in other places plus he will be there for his week.

I used a piece of silver scalloped tape that I cut out on the Big Shot. It was extra from a project I haven't shown you yet. Tucked in some velvet petaloo flowers and a cute little tree charm. Fussy cut the photo a bit as the background was distracting.

Randomly while "tidying" I happened to have a bottle of green patina in my hand that needed to get put away and I thought why not dots...the fact they dried to a nice enamel like sheen impressed me greatly...and since it was was purely an experiment on my part...I was happily surprised on how cool they looked!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

There was some tidying of my office this weekend and I ran across these darling photos of my sister in law's babies. Aren't they sweet? Stephanie had sent them to me at Valentine's Day and I had been planning on making her a Valentine's Day page. Right about the same time I found them, I saw the double page layout I made recently at a Crafternoon from the Happy Times Close to My Heart paper. It occurred to me that I had JUST the right photos. All I added besides photos was a few black stamped hearts, some splatters, and the burlap bows.

I scanned in the wallets and printed them bigger. They aren't the best quality, but I adheared them lightly in case Stephanie has better quality ones she'd like to use.

She had the dates & how old they were written on the back, which is an awesome thing to do. I opted to copy the idea using a white pen. Lots of room for journaling at the very bottom.

Love that big photo of the girls together. That was on the Valentine's Day card. I am thinking about adding a title, but I wanted to leave space for journaling for Stephanie and perhaps another photo? Or maybe she likes a little more white space on her layouts than I do. ;-)

Check out those yummy little flowers that we stamped and fussy cut. I added a couple of my own and some string...and frosted them with glitter glue.

Hope Stephanie likes it! If you get a chance to get your hands on this paper pack, it really won't disappoint. It's chock full of gold and pretty florals with barn board....just super yummy!

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Due to a busy week, my usual trip down to the ReStore was delayed. In fact, I almost didn't think I was going to make it. However, on Thursday, which evidently is a luckier day than Tuesday, I found all kinds of goodies.

Lots of awesome hardware to add my stash....and while you are looking at vintage pulls, look at those crazy leaves on the bottom of that extremely heavy metal candle stick...

My favorite thing that I found is that hand painted pitcher with the pretty gold handle....for $3!! Whhooohoooo! I am a sucker for anything that is hand painted. You can bet I washed that by hand and carefully! ;-)

The lady at the ReStore said the candle stick was so heavy it would be a good weapon to keep on the side of the bed. I'm not entirely sure what kind of metal it is, I just used a soft cloth and some toothpaste to clean off the grime. Still thinking on what I might do with it..it might just be a candle stick.....gasp!

And check out that little shaker box with the roses. Someone hand made that. It was stamped in the top! Not sure if I'm going to add anything to it or just enjoy it the way it is...time will tell!

Glad you joined me for a little junking trip! I get so much pleasure out of $10, polishing my treasures when I get home and then finding homes for them! Later, they might get altered!

Monday, May 23, 2016

Almost two years ago, North Country neighbor Bob said, you can't take boulders from here when you move. As I was half way through hatching a scheme where I could take boulders, his statement stopped me dead in my tracks. I then decided he meant I couldn't take a lot. I mean we had a trailer, a tractor, and boulders. What's a little trucking south when it comes to lovely granite boulders? Plus, I planned on using my puppy dog eyes with THE MAN.

And so I did. I smuggled four or five big rocks on our trailer all the while THE MAN complained. Then I stock piled them until this past weekend at which point they got installed in the little Japanese. garden. Which by the way looks quite lovely, in my opinion. So, yes Bob you can totally move big rocks!

This past weekend involved some crafting, running of kids, and then finally on Sunday some work in the gardens. We did fight the bugs the entire time who were intent on eating us. So when I spotted a recently hatched bunch of spiders, I cheered on their efforts and even sang them a little song about being champions. I hope they grow big and strong and eat a ton of black flies. I googled them. They are aptly called Argiope aurantia or Yellow Garden Spiders. I know, pretty creative.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Dear Lord, I will have a sixteen year old in five months. It was with these thoughts that I threw a couple of sheets of white cardstock through the silly and cut all three layers of Regina's Three Tier Cake Box from THE CUTTING CAFE.

But wait you say, there are FOUR layers to this cake. Well, this cake is actually a series of boxes and I opted to hot glue the middle box together to make my cake even higher. I also wanted to use a lot of glittery frosting and washi tape so it worked out well. I cut strips of paper to to decorate the sides.

The boxes just slide together as one is slightly bigger than the other. You can see how I cheated in this photo. I use little staples to hold the paper together. Totally dig those itty bitty little staples! I actually start with a quick staple to hold the bottom circle to the piece that wraps around to make sure things stay where I want them to.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Sunday afternoons usually involve me & a paper packet. I'm not scrapping per se, but I am making page backgrounds out of paper. It's kinda mindless and I love fitting in a lot of scraps and odd pieces so most everything is used up. This particular one I wasn't sure what kind of photo would work for it...it was the very last of a kit. Good thing ALL the kids wore something different for me so it ended up working for this photo!

I added some lime green duct tape because Eddie (that's him on the right down at the bottom) wore a lime green shirt and bam, the photo worked with the background. Then I dug around and found those plane chippies deep down in the stash, glued them on with glitter glue and inked them up blue to match. I mean, we were at Kitty Hawk & the Wright Brothers National Memorial. ;-)

While you are looking at the photos, take a peek at my Sistah in Law who kindly hammed it up with her Five Guys burger....the rest of my family did not do what I asked which was do something epic so we can send this photo to your Grandpa...sigh. She gets credit for following directions...

Another layout to come from visiting the Wright Brothers National Park...I have some cool photos of Luke who was the catalyst for the visit. He very much enjoyed himself!

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Tim's tag for May didn't excite me. I mean it was super cool and all but I think I was stuck on the part where the washi tape he used (which I love) to mask the stamp wasn't in my collection any longer due to using up my second roll of it...so I had to come up with my own version which was using regular clear tape.

I did totally dig the rolled flowers and the idea of metal dangly things so off I went....I also decided to focus on the purple as I've had purple on the brain lately. You might notice I snuck in a little shell and a dolphin charm we got when we were in the Outerbanks at Beads and Beans. Also fussy cut one of Tim's moths.

We're well on our way to being half way done with these...next month marks the mid-way point and I'm impressed with the tidy pretty little pile these tags make...and when you set them all out together, super yummy!

I still have plenty of words left to use for my One Little Quote for the year. It's still standing true, that quote. Some days more than others I feel the very words in my soul....this life thing is a journey right?

I'm also seeing the need for some smaller tags, so wish me luck when I reduce the foot print in the next couple months of what space I have to work with...oh I do love a good challenge!

Monday, May 16, 2016

Please excuse the Cheap Trick song. It's been stuck in my head since the alarm clock woke me up playing it in the wee hours of Friday am. It's an awesome song, so not a bad thing. My weekend started off with laundry. Since all the fancy work clothes get washed separately there are those from the whole week, then the towels, and then the regular clothes....and then someone thought the dog needed a bath...so the towels from that....

Anyhow, between all the laundrying, a dinner out, grocerying, and pickinguping, I did manage to fit in some crafting. Wait 'til you see some of the stuff I made...one makes me want cake! CAKE I tell you! I also started a few more angels, so there was some ironing and sewing to get them started. It was at that point I texted my Mom and asked her what settings my sewing machine should be on for one of those very loose stitches you use when you want to pull one side of it to make it all scrunch up...

She called to help and I used some adult language to describe my feelings for my sewing machine. I mean, I love it when the sewing machine works...but not so much when I make big balls of white thread.....Anyhow, I then later texted Mom to thank her for helping and apologize for being a dick. I completely didn't deserve what happened next...we had a visitor. Actually we had two, but I didn't get photos of the female..

I believe it's a male Indigo Bunting chowing down on the dandelion seeds. Isn't he just brilliant? Such a pretty blue! I am hoping since I saw both the female and male that they are working on a nest near by. Then I'd really be lucky!

Well, today is the start of a brand new week, may each day of this week have an unexpected gift!

Our host of Memorandum Monday is Sian over at High in the Sky who has the most awesome pencil sharpener at her disposal...which I'm quite jealous of! Happy happy!

Thursday, May 12, 2016

I solemnly swear I will buy NO MORE PAPER PACKETS until I use up what I have....ugh. I have two lovely rock star paper packets from Close to My Heart that never (until this page) have been used for like months. The purple one is called Taste of Summer and the chalk boardy one is called Chalk It Up. Thank goodness I was able to use pieces from both so I don' t feel like a hoarder!

I did also use a sheet of Tim Holtz paper, but that is always a hoardable kind of thing...thought it was funny to put the header butterflies and moths so it could just be seen over the paper. Those early teen years...what fun, right?

Love the flower clusters and that dog button that Lexi snagged for me from the Health Fair. She and her friend Kayla came up with the winning pitch in their class so got to design & man the booth at the health fair, which meant they got out of class for the day! Kayla's hair dictated my color choices...although I think you might be able to see a little of Lexi's purple peek-a-boo color too...

Well, we have finally made it to Thursday...now just another day to the weekend! I hear it's going to rain, hoping that means time in my crafting room!

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

There is something about pink roses, black stripes, and gold butterflies with a beach photo...yeah, wasn't sure I was going to pull it off...but I like it! A beach photo of a sand gator MUST get scrapped...wait, you don't see a gator?

See, sand gator? We came across it while walking on the beach and Lexi was cool enough to pose with Mr. Gator. Love that someone was thoughtful enough to use shell toenails...and a rock for an eye...bless their sand creativity!

Lots of layering...and of course a little twine to give it a beachy feel! I am REALLY loving the gold these days. Was happy to catch those gold stencil butterflies shimmering in the sun!

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

One of our favorite things to do when we go to the Outerbanks is to hit the beach. THE MAN rigged up a portable air compressor that takes the air out of the tires & got a beach pass so we could drive out with the truck. There are only certain times of the year they allow you to go out (when it's safe for the wildlife, like the baby sea turtles). The trick to driving on the beach is that you have to let the air out of your tires to allow it to roll over the sand vs. getting stuck.

I used a really big photo for this layout as I really liked this one of the three of us.

Since there are a TON of vacation photos, I added a second photo.

A few shells from the beach, twine, some gold paint, and some dyed cheese cloth to give it a beachy feel!

Monday, May 9, 2016

I have heard other scrapbookers talk about having trouble jumping back into their art after taking a break. After a week in the Outerbanks, making a few cards was quite a struggle. It's like the muse was still basking on the beach. I did manage to assemble a Mother's Day present for my Mom last week and a quick card. I leaned quite heavily on the premade acetate circle and cool vintage graphic.

The present itself was not as hard. The silver bowl was upcycled from the Corning ReStore and filled with some lavendar hand soap, raspberry hand made soap, two pairs of homemade earrings, and some chocolate. Fun times!

Check out that pretty black shell I used on this card. That came back with us from the beach and I've enjoyed adding shells on pages I made this weekend. I actually made quite a few pages...that I'll be showing you soon. The mojo? That came back after a crafternoon at my friend Angel's house.

Isn't this yummy? It's just a sneak peek of a double page spread we made. I have a ton of photos from vacation, just need to pick which ones to use! So anyhow, if you are suffering from lack of creativity after taking a break and need to jump start your creativity? I highly suggest hanging with your friends, some wine, chocolate, and awesome paper. It will totally fix you right back up!